Silicon Valley Launches Pro-AI PACs to Defend Industry in Midterm Elections
Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among those helping launch and fund Leading the Future
- Silicon Valley is investing over $100 million in political-action committees to advocate against strict artificial intelligence regulations.
- Leading the Future, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI’s Greg Brockman, aims to influence AI policy through campaign donations and ads.
- The network seeks to counter efforts to slow AI deployment and prevent a patchwork of state regulations, supporting both Democrats and Republicans.
WASHINGTON—Silicon Valley is putting more than $100 million into a network of political-action committees and organizations to advocate against strict artificial-intelligence regulations, a signal that tech executives will be active in next year’s midterm elections.
Venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among those helping launch and fund Leading the Future, a new super-PAC network focused on AI, the group told The Wall Street Journal. Andreessen Horowitz’s head of government affairs, Collin McCune, Brockman and OpenAI chief global affairs officer Chris Lehane were involved in initial conversations earlier in the year about the need to help shape industry-friendly policies.
Leading the Future hopes to use campaign donations and digital ads to advocate for select AI policies and oppose candidates who the group believes will stifle the industry at large. One of its goals is to push back against a movement backed by some other tech titans that focuses on regulating AI models before they get too powerful and create catastrophic risks for society. The organization said it isn’t pushing for total deregulation but wants sensible guardrails.
“There is a vast force out there that’s looking to slow down AI deployment, prevent the American worker from benefiting from the U.S. leading in global innovation and job creation and erect a patchwork of regulation,” Josh Vlasto and Zac Moffatt, the group’s leaders, said in a joint statement. “This is the ecosystem that is going to be the counterforce going into next year.”
The new network, one of the first of its kind focusing on AI policy, hopes to emulate Fairshake, a cryptocurrency-focused super-PAC network. Fairshake helped swing last year’s election results by working to defeat crypto skeptics such as former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and backing candidates who helped pass the first crypto regulations, which President Trump signed into law earlier this year. (Brown is running again next year.)
Vlasto is a spokesman and media strategist for Fairshake and previously worked for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Moffatt is the chief executive officer of consulting firm Targeted Victory and a former digital director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.
The group’s launch coincides with concerns about the U.S. staying ahead of China in the AI race, while Washington has largely shied away from tackling AI policies. Many tech executives worry that Congress won’t pass AI rules, creating a patchwork of state laws that hurt their companies. Earlier this year, a push by some Republicans to ban state AI bills for 10 years was shot down after opposition from other conservatives who opposed a blanket prohibition on any state AI legislation.
Leading the Future will generally align with White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, a frequent critic of “AI doomers.” The organization plans to start work in four states seen as key AI-policy battlegrounds: New York, California, Illinois and Ohio.
The group said it would support both Democrats and Republicans and would include federal and state PACs and a 501(c)(4) organization that advocates for policies. The network’s AI campaign is expected to start later this year.
One of the best-known venture-capital firms, Andreessen Horowitz is also a big backer of Fairshake. Billionaire co-founder Marc Andreessen was one of the most notable tech executives to support Trump last year after previously boosting Democrats, part of a swing in Silicon Valley toward conservatives. The shift has worried some Democrats who fear they may continue to hemorrhage support without more positive messaging around AI.
Brockman co-founded ChatGPT maker OpenAI alongside CEO Sam Altman and others and is now one of Altman’s top deputies. He is contributing to the new group with his wife, Anna Brockman, whom he married at the OpenAI offices on a workday.
Other backers include 8VC managing partner and Palantir Technologies co-founder Joe Lonsdale, AI search engine Perplexity and veteran angel investor Ron Conway.